


A New Brown and Gold

by fazcinatingreads



Category: AFL - Fandom, Football - Fandom, Sports - Fandom, Tom Phillips - Fandom, brown and gold, changing the world - Fandom, graphic design - Fandom, hawthorn - Fandom, saving the world - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:00:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27416143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fazcinatingreads/pseuds/fazcinatingreads
Summary: Hawthorn recruit Tom Phillips sets about making his new football club a better place





	A New Brown and Gold

The graphic design room at Hawthorn had cobwebs and dust over all the computers and when Tom Phillips walked in the office on his first day, he was confronted by a man sobbing in the corner.

"Are you okay?" Tom asked, rushing over to the man.

The man hiccuped. "I... I'm just really stressed out," he said, "It's just so hard designing things with the two worst colours in the world."

"It's okay," Tom said, reassuring him, "I'm here now. I'm going to help yo----"

The man jumped up, yelled "please take over this sinking ship" and ran out of the office. Tom was stunned. Bewildered. 

Once he'd gotten over the shock, he sat down at the desk with a fresh piece of paper and a sharpened pencil. Hmmm. He stared at the current Hawthorn jumper framed on the wall in front of him and grimaced. It truly was ugly, with the most distasteful of colours. He'd come to Hawthorn with the condition that Clarko would let him change the guernsey to something more palatable. 

Tom had always wanted to change the world, make it a better place, and coming here, he reckoned he could do that by changing the Hawthorn guernsey. They won every premiership and had a loyal passionate fanbase, but what good was all that if the rest of the world despised you and couldn't stand to look at you without vomiting?

So, Tom got to work, drawing patterns and designs onto his piece of paper, swirls and circles and straight lines.

By the time he filled the paper with his ideas, big Jonathan Patton poked his head into the room. "Hey, there you are," he said, smiling, "it's lunch time."

"Yeah, sure," Tom said, grabbing his designs and meeting Jono in the doorway. They walked down an endless maze of corridors together, each wall lined with premiership cups and medallions and millions of framed paintings of Dermott "Kermit" Brereton, all posing in various states of nudity and hairstyles. He'd heard rumours that Kermit had commissioned the artwork himself and sold it to the club at a high price.

Jono led Tom to the dining hall where the rest of the team were wolfing down food noisily and disgustingly.

Tom grabbed a tray, loaded up with the array of salads, and sat down next to Jono, the nicest one he'd met at Hawthorn so far. He placed his guernsey designs in front of him, and looked them over while he ate.

"I like that one," Jono said, pointing at one with swirls of brown and gold in the shape of a star.

"Thanks," Tom said, "That one's great but I'm deciding which one to show Clarko first."

"How about show him all of them?" Jono suggested, "Maybe he can decide. He's pretty smart, old Clarko."

Tom nodded. "Yeah good idea."

After lunch, Tom took his original designs plus some more he'd whipped up during lunch, and knocked on the door of Clarko's office. He heard a "come in" from inside, so Tom entered, and was surprised by the blankness of the walls, the minimalist nature of the office. It was the only room Tom had seen that didn't have memorabilia all over the walls.

"Hey Tom," Clarko said, "You chosen a design for our new guernsey?"

"Well, I have several designs," Tom replied, and handed over all his papers.

Clarko looked at them all in wonder and awe. "Wow," he mused, "Wow, these are fabulous! They're all so much better than the original! And they all show our colours in much different light, there's no way we'll be associated with poo and wee with any of these."  
Tom beamed.

....

Flash forward to Round 1, 2021. None of the players knew what design had been chosen for the new Hawthorn guernsey that would permanently replace the old brown and gold vertical stripes.

It was time for the jumper presentation for the newbies to receive their first guernsey.

"Number 21, Tom Phillips," Jono Patton announced, "You came into our club with a vision. A vision to change this great powerful club into a charming and endearing club for all of the fans and opposition to find pleasing to the eye. We are forever indebted to your inspiring and creative talent, and hope this will be another proud chapter of the Hawthorn Football Club."

Jono turned the guernsey around to show the whole playing group the design that Tom had created. The entire guernsey was made up of detailed and elaborate squares of chocolate (a pleasing brown colour) mixed in with caramilk swirls (pleasant gold colour). The playing group, coaches, and officials burst into thunderous cheering and everyone patted Tom Phillips on the back. A national hero.


End file.
